Attractive Employers

 

What defines attractive employers? How do they develop and how does an organization become a particularly attractive employer? We try to find answers to those questions and take special interest in the individuality of SMEs.

 

_______________

 

Research projects are being sponsored by:

Program „Transnational Research“ by the Tyrolean economical fund

 

In cooperation with:

• Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruch (Institute for organization and learning/Institute for Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism)
• MCI Management Center Innsbruck
• University of Liechtenstein

 

Project summary:

Employer Branding as communicative interface between employers and (potential) employees. The project at hand is aiming at the deepening of theoretical and empirical understanding of employer branding. Starting with the criticism of the predominantly functionalistic and behavioristic orientation of research concerning employer branding, our approach utilizes an interpretative, rational theoretical base model which is being widened, enriched and refined by empirical studies. In doing that, we are guided by a comprehensive process of employer branding and investigate the development and the implementation of employer brands in organizations, the criteria for the observation of the attractiveness of particularly important target groups in the external job market as well as the reception and impact of employer brands on this workforce. In doing so, the specific demands of SMEs are especially included.

The research results can provide an essential contribution to the theoretical and empirical further development of knowledge in the area of Employer Branding. That knowledge can also serve as the basis for the strategic orientation of employer branding as a communication platform between employers and employees. Further, these results also have implications for personnel management of organizations in general, because the contentual configuration of successful employer brands has to correspond widely with the actual practices in personnel work.